


Currents

by obi_ki



Category: Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-17
Updated: 2011-04-17
Packaged: 2017-10-17 13:14:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/177200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/obi_ki/pseuds/obi_ki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being on the outside looking in can be a challenge of its own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Currents

**Author's Note:**

> The events mentioned in the story all occurred within the EU books or CW episodes but may not have occurred in the order they are mentioned.

Title: Currents  
Author: obi-ki  
Characters: Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan  
Rating: G  
Category: POV  
Archive: MA, any others please ask  
Spoilers: Many for the Extended Universe books and for the Clone Wars TV series.  
Disclaimers: Everything Star Wars belongs to George Lucas and Lucasfilms. I am just playing in his world, borrowing the boyz and their accomplices and will return them all when I'm through. No money is being made from this, it is all done for entertainment only.  
Author's Notes: The events mentioned in the story all occurred within the EU books or CW episodes but may not have occurred in the order they are mentioned.  
Additional notes at end of story. Many thanks to Merry Amelie for the thorough beta and helpful suggestions. As always, I couldn't resist making a few final tweaks, so all mistakes are mine. Feedback is always appreciated, onlist or privately at kiowkqgj@yahoo.com.  
Summary: Being on the outside looking in can be a challenge of its own.

  


Time passed very differently when a being resided within the currents of the Force. There was no sense of linear progression, and the lack of physical needs like nourishment and sleep removed the markers that living beings used to denote their days. Large segments of time seemed to pass by unnoticed and, it was only when you looked into the living world that you got some idea of the length of such segments.

Part of that disassociation had to do with me honing my own skills; taking the theoretical knowledge passed on to me by the Shaman of the Whills and converting it into a practical application. Years passed before I could generate enough cohesion to focus on the physical worlds for more than a few seconds and the effort it took to achieve that would send me back into a cataleptic state for months on end. As I sharpened my skills, the time between attempts lessened and the time of actual contact increased.

It took four years before I could make myself heard and, much to my sadness, I was unsuccessful reaching the person I most wanted to contact. Whether it was his lack of strength in the Living Force or the weight of his duty and grief, Obi-Wan was unable to recognize that the voice whispering to him in his dreams and meditations was coming from within the Force. Switching tactics, I reached out to Anakin during a mission to Zenoma Sekot, but when he told his master of the contact, it was written off as the wishful thinking of a lonely boy.

I strove to develop my technique, maintaining longer periods of coherence as I watched both Obi-Wan and Anakin mature and grow. I watched Anakin fight a specter of Darth Maul as he constructed his lightsaber on Ilum, saw he and Obi-Wan complete missions as their relationship sputtered and grew. The blank spots between my periods of consciousness continued to shorten but remained unpredictable and, during one of those times, Anakin and Obi-Wan faced two enemies from my past, Jenna Zan Arbor and Grant Omega, son of my fallen apprentice, Xanatos. Jedi Councilor Master Yaddle died on a mission with them during that time.

The atmosphere in the Galaxy continued to Darken, events manipulated by Palpatine to bolster his power while keeping his facade of a kind and selfless politico fully intact. His deceptions cast a wide net but, even from my outside vantage point, I failed to see how many people he had caught up in his web. The revelation that my former master had turned to the Dark and become Sidious' apprentice set back my progress, the shock of his betrayal scattering my consciousness into the comfort of the Force for almost a year.

When I finally re-achieved cohesion, I went back to work with renewed purpose. Unable to make recognizable contact, I took on the role of guardian for the man who held my heart and the child I had burdened him with. Instead of attempting speech, I would send warnings and prompts, nudges that could easily be dismissed as prescience within the Force, many of which served as pivots to move missions from failure to success.

I pushed myself to my limits, following along on missions until the Force would no longer hold me together. Romin, Falleen, Korriban and Ansion; the corruption being sown by Dooku and Palpatine continued to grow. The more I tried to exert pressure within the Force, the longer my cataleptic states would last. My desperate attempt to reach Anakin after his mother's death on Tatooine scattered my essence once again, and dismay filled me as I lost contact with the physical world.

I had no idea how much time had passed when my awareness returned but, when I looked down at Obi-Wan, I saw more changes than I would have expected. He was still incredibly handsome and would have attracted the attention of men and women, even without the mystique of being Jedi. But webs of wrinkles had settled in the corners of his eyes and traces of gray were intermixed with the copper fire of his hair and beard.

The man standing beside him had also changed. Anakin was five centimeters taller and ten kilograms heavier than at my last viewing and his face was quickly losing the roundness of boyhood. At twenty, he was on the cusp of being a man, thinking he knew everything while still having a lot to learn. Jedi children grow up quickly even in the most peaceful times, but being thrown into the middle of a war had accelerated that growth.

But the physical changes in Obi-Wan paled in comparison to emotional ones. There was a sadness about him that could not be explained by the events I was aware of. I extended my senses into the Temple and I was shocked by the weight of the grief that I felt. The number of Jedi in the Temple was greatly diminished, and I struggled to identify the reason. Suddenly I was overwhelmed with memories of the Battle of Geonosis and felt the pain of that massive loss.

Coleman Trebot, Chankar, Lyron, Nat-Sem and Lura Trenor, along with hundreds of others were lost to the blaster-fire of Count Dooku's battledroids, and the pain of their senseless deaths overshadowed all else within the Temple.

Compelled to try to offer comfort, I wrapped a cocoon of the Force around Obi-Wan, and I watched as he looked around in confusion. Elated that my contact had been sensed, I increased my pull on the Force, sending waves of love along with the comfort even as I realized my extra effort was causing me to lose focus and contact.

Now that I was aware once again, another set of changes was evident in Obi-Wan.

His shoulder-length mullet was gone, replaced by a shorter haircut and a neatly trimmed beard. He was not in Temple but on a ship, accompanied by Bail Organa rather than Anakin. Obi-Wan's face had a few more lines, evidence of the pain of loss and the stress of fighting in a war. General Kenobi. I sensed the name in Bail's thoughts, even as I sensed the seeds of friendship between them.

The trust between the two men surprised me. Not because Bail trusted Obi-Wan but because Obi-Wan trusted Bail. Obi-Wan's distrust of politicians went back years, to when he had still been a padawan. Although always the picture of courtesy, he was wary of all politicians' motives, from benevolent rulers like Amidala of Naboo to despots like Nute Gunray of the Trade Federation. He had even frowned upon my friendship with Finis Valorum, convinced that even if the Chancellor didn't expect special favors, the perception of favoritism on my part or his would always exist.

The purpose of their journey disturbed me as did their destination. Zigoola was a planet steeped in the Dark and searching for a Sith Holocron, though they had the best intentions, could not end well. The Force was rippling with danger and I pressed to augment Obi-Wan's 'bad feeling'. I extended my reach within the currents, searching for any indications that would help them, and I was swamped under by the strength of the Darkness emanating from the Sith Temple. I barely had time to send a warning before consciousness faded.

Their ship was shuddering and bucking when I connected with them again, and I could feel the energy Obi-Wan was exerting to keep the ship flying. I drew on the currents around me to add to his effort, and the ship settled into a more stable trajectory. I knew that Obi-Wan could not maintain control for long, even with my assistance, but with the help of the Force and a whole lot of luck, it would be enough to get them down to the planet's surface in one piece.

I managed to isolate my consciousness enough to keep the Darkness at bay and remain aware but the effort kept me from doing anything more than observing. I was relieved to see that both Obi-Wan and Bail managed to walk away from the crash, but that relief was short-lived when Obi-Wan began to hear voices. The closer they got to the Sith Temple, the more pronounced the Darkside illusions became, until Obi-Wan could no longer function. The power emanating from the Holocron was immeasurable, and I was greatly relieved when Bail destroyed it. I held on until Obi-Wan had recovered enough to contact Yoda and a ship was enroute to collect them.

The effects of being exposed to the Sith Holocron clung to Obi-Wan for months after he and Bail returned from Zigoola and in some way clung to me as well. Much of the progress I had made in my quest receded, and my strength in the Force ebbed and waned without much rhyme or reason. Each time I was aware seemed more of the same, only the planets that the battlefields were located on seemed to change.

The one thing that I did recognize was that the Army of the Republic was losing ground every day. The casualties were mounting, both military and civilian, and unlike the droid armies of the Trade Federation and the Techno Union, the available replacements were dwindling rapidly. Inexperienced padawans were being deployed alongside green knights and even greener masters, even without taking into account that most Jedi had very little experience in military strategy. Add to that the newest groups of clone troopers had been flash-trained rather than having undergone full military training on Kamino, and it combined to create a recipe for disaster. The small group of seasoned Jedi were being run ragged trying to hold things together, and even the campaigns they succeeded in could not be counted as true victories.

In spite of the fact that Palpatine was controlling both sides of all the events, there were a few victories, and Obi-Wan and Anakin were usually at the center of those engagements. But even the victories came at such a high cost that it was impossible for any of the Jedi to truly consider them as such. The Force was weighed down with the death, pain and despair that permeated both the battlefields and the planets being occupied by the Separatists and their allies. It clouded everything and the only person who benefited from that clouding was Sidious.

Kashyyyk, Alaris Prime, Raxis Prime, Jabiim, Kamino, Muunilinst, Haruun Kal, Ord Cestus, Duro, Christophsis. One battle morphed into another and whether the Republic forces won or lost, the true losers were the citizens of the war-beleaguered planets. Blockades caused food shortages and bombings killed innocent people, as well as leaving businesses and farmland devastated in their wake. Even more tragic was the devastation caused by the biological weapons that Dooku's minions deployed. The swamp gas released on the Gungan settlement on Ohma-D'un and the toxic gas that poisoned the air and water supply on Felucia destroyed flora and fauna in addition to sentient beings, leaving barren wastelands behind. Nothing was sacred and no price was considered too high if it helped the Separatists achieve their goals.

After attaching a portion of my awareness to Obi-Wan and Anakin, I decided to shift my focus. Against my better judgment, I skirted along the edges of the Dark and attempted to make contact with my former master. Although I'd never had as strong a connection with Dooku as the one Obi-Wan and I shared, I did spend fourteen years of my life with the man, so I hoped I could find some way to reach him. In the end, it was a wasted effort. From his youth, Dooku had been obsessed with the theoretical concepts of the Dark, but back then his aura was more one of shadowed Light than of true Darkness. Now he was drowning in the Dark, thick, inky lines binding him to Sidious and the power he craved.

Although Dooku never took an apprentice of his own due to the Sith 'Rule of Two', he did recruit a number of Force-sensitives and former Jedi to join the Separatist cause. He trained them to become his Dark Acolytes and sent them on missions mainly focused on eliminating Jedi. Asajj Ventress, Durge and Grievous were given positions as commanders in the Confederation Army and were often sent on assignments that brought them up against Obi-Wan and Anakin.

It didn't take long for things to become personal between Dooku's henchmen and Obi-Wan as he consistently foiled their plans. Ventress managed to capture Obi-Wan during the Battle of Jabiim and transported him to her stronghold on Rattatak to interrogate and torture him. All I could do was watch as she placed him in a Sith Torture Mask, disrupting his connections with the Force and with his apprentice. She hoped to break him by convincing him that Anakin had perished on Jabiim and use his grief to either defeat him or turn him. It took time, but eventually Obi-Wan managed to escape from his cell and steal Ventress's starfighter to leave the planet.

It was difficult to watch as Anakin grieved for his master, mistakenly believing along with everyone else that Obi-Wan had perished on Jabiim. In spite of his pain, he did his duty and did it well, organizing a group of 'orphaned' padawans to continue to defend Jabiim. Palpatine recalled him from the battle-torn planet, and even though he wanted to stay and fight with the others, he felt it was his duty to obey the Supreme Chancellor. The deaths of those padawans after his retreat weighed heavily on him. His meeting and interactions with the Tusken Jedi A'Shared Hett in the wake of this battle led to both setbacks and growth for Anakin, and the strength of his grief blocked any attempt I made at calming him.

Anakin was knighted after the Battle of Praesitlyn but, like most of his training, there was much contention with the Council on his readiness. Much like Obi-Wan's own knighting, Master Yoda cut Anakin's braid, though in this case it was duty not death that kept Obi-Wan from doing the honors. Though I shared his sadness at not being able to participate in the ceremony.

Anakin and Obi-Wan made such a formidable team that, even after Anakin's knighting, they were often sent on missions and into battlefields together. Not too long afterwards, they were sent on a mission to Christophsis and during that mission Anakin was assigned a padawan of his own. At first, Anakin was incredulous, believing that the Togruta child had misunderstood and was really being assigned to Obi-Wan. Having a padawan assigned rather than being chosen was unusual, but having lost so many Jedi at Geonosis and being in the midst of a war, may have temporarily changed the selection process. But much like my pairing with Obi-Wan, Yoda was good at seeing which initiates and knights belonged together, and both Anakin and Ashoka grew and matured as time passed. Obi-Wan seemed to get a great deal of enjoyment out of Anakin's frustrations with her, and I found myself feeling regret that I had missed the pleasure of his similar interactions with Anakin.

It was during the Outer Rim Sieges that the first concrete evidence linking back to Darth Sidious was discovered. Although Nute Gunray escaped, they confiscated his mechno-chair and within its structure they found a holotransceiver that broadcast on an encrypted channel directly to the Dark Lord. They were still blind about the connection between Sidious and Palpatine, the strength of the Dark apparently smothering every attempt I made at communicating that information.

The sense of inevitability within the Force was now oppressive and, although not privy to knowing who would be victorious in the end, I could sense that things would soon be coming to a head. The Darkness was clouding everything, and even from my vantage point within the Force, my sight and senses were obscured. I finally managed to make contact with Yoda but it was at a time when he had just received a communication from Dooku.

I watched as Dooku's voice transmitted through the receiver concealed in the hilt of Jang Li-Li's lightsaber, his carefully chosen words making Yoda wonder at his motives. Yoda sifted through his memories of Dooku as a youth, and as the past and present merged, I was able to make myself seen. It took Yoda a moment to realize what he was sensing, and then he tapped the hilt of Jang Li-Li's lightsaber.

"You saw?" 'I did.' "Cunning it is. If I move to see him, I must keep any Republic ships away from the Hydian Way. Deny the chance of peace utterly, must I, or else give him extra months unharried in his lair." 'He is a fencer. Leverage, position, advantage--they are as natural to him as breathing.' "My old student--your old Master, Qui-Gon. The truth he is telling?" 'He thinks he is lying.' Yoda's ears pricked up. "Hmm?" 'He thinks he is lying.'

Yoda smiled at that point but, before I could speak about my other concerns, a strong ripple rolled through the Force, coming from the student dormitories, and I was instantly back within the currents of the Force.

As abrupt as my return to the ether was, I was buoyed by the fact that I had not only been visible to Yoda but also that we had managed to carry on an actual conversation. Hopefully this would be borne out in further contact with Master Yoda and in finally being able to reach Obi-Wan.

I spent an unknown period of time contemplating the technique that had enabled my successful communication with Yoda. The contact had happened so quickly that I was unsure of exactly how I had achieved it so, before I could make further attempts, I needed to analyze the process. I continued to dog both Obi-Wan and Anakin's missions, testing out a variety of tactics to initiate the connection. A few times I managed to come close. In the atmosphere above Felucia, Obi-Wan looking around in confusion as I augmented his strength as he struggled to land their damaged ship. On Malastare, I was able to connect momentarily with Anakin while he fought to subdue the Zillo beast but my attempt to warn them of the folly of bring the creature to Coruscant went unheard.

My former master continued to wreak havoc on the Republic and I found myself metaphorically holding my breath as Dooku met with Mother Talzin of the Nightsisters of Dathomir. It would have been amusing to see her manipulating Dooku if the consequences of the manipulation had not been so severe. Obi-Wan and Anakin were again tasked to try to get to the bottom of the situation, and their meetings with both Mother Talzin and the conclave of men on Dathomir were fraught with tensions as well as anecdotal moments. Anakin certainly seemed to have picked up many of my rebellious tendencies, even though he only experienced one firsthand. Watching Obi-Wan and Anakin fight Savage Opress brought back rather unpleasant memories of Naboo and Darth Maul and I was relieved to find the battle ended more positively than that one had.

The mysterious transmission the Council received in the days after Obi-Wan and Anakin escaped from the fight with Dooku and Opress made me both apprehensive and excited. Tracing back the source of the transmission, I found a nexus of Force power that I had never sensed before, inhabited by three very powerful Force-users. There was a heavy sense of danger and deception coming from the location, but there was also a pull that I was unable to resist. This might be the conduit I'd been searching for, the concentration of the Force needed to augment my skills and allow me to finally make contact with Obi-Wan.

I tracked Obi-Wan, Anakin and Ashoka on their journey, not surprised to find Admiral Tenant and the Battle group that had been deployed to accompany them were misdirected to a false location. As their ship came down on Mortis, the manipulations of the Father became clearer, but I was confident that Obi-Wan and Anakin were aware that all was not as it seemed. Separating Anakin from the others was a predictable move, and as Obi-Wan and Ashoka found shelter in the crystal cave I could feel that the moment I'd been waiting for all these years was at hand.

As Obi-Wan settled on the ground in a meditative posture, I gathered the Force around me and directed the amassed energy into the cave. In a matter of seconds, I had materialized a few meters in front of him, looking much the way I had when I had communicated with Master Yoda. I was still translucent, but I was confident he would be able to see me.

I took a moment to study him, relishing being able to see with physical eyes as well as the Force. He was still devastatingly handsome, the youthful smoothness that had defined his face as a padawan now crafted into the experience-laden lines of a mature man. The lines around his eyes and mouth spoke of the heavy weight of duty he carried, raising an apprentice as talented and tenacious as Anakin amid a war definitely taking a toll. He was every bit the Jedi Master, General and Councilor that the years had produced, the depth of his experience evident in every line of his body. Love and pride filled me. He had surpassed me in every way and stood testament to the strength he had shown in the face of years of adversity.

Obi-Wan was still unaware of my presence, his eyes open but all of his awareness is focused inward. There was so much I wanted to say, so much in my heart, but the Force was insistent that I address the issues at hand. I could only hope that once I made this initial contact, there would be time after the danger around them was resolved to deal with things of a more personal nature. Well, duty had always taken precedence over desire, so why should I have expected things to be different just because I had joined the Force?

Although I already knew the answer to the question, the Force was hammering me with what it wanted me to say and now was not the time to ignore its will.

"Obi-Wan, have you done as I asked? Have you trained the boy?"

Obi-Wan jumped to his feet, lightsaber lit and battle-ready instantly. The shock on his face was clear and he stuttered a half-step forward before taking a battle stance. I could feel the joy in his heart at my presence, even as his mind warred with the possibility that I was really standing in front of him.

"Master Qui-Gon, how are you here?"

So formal, so Jedi, my Obi-Wan. He wanted to rush forward, to confirm what his eyes were showing him but he held back. He knew that there were mysteries to this place that remained hidden, manipulations and deceptions that could prove fatal to him and to those he cared about. His caution was not misplaced, even as it broke my heart to see it. So, I ignored the technical answers that mattered not one bit in this instant and replied with the only one that was relevant.

"I am here because you are here."

The end.

**Author's Note:**

> Additional author's notes: This story was started about 6 months ago, before it was ever announced that Qui-Gon would appear on the Clone Wars series, though I couldn't resist altering the ending to include that interaction. I've always been fascinated but the notion of Qui-Gon remaining aware and intact within the Force and wanted to play with the idea. The conversation between Qui-Gon and Master Yoda is taken verbatim from the book 'Dark Rendezvous' by Sean Stewart. The other events mentioned are from the EU books, comics or the CW TV episodes


End file.
